Tate Modern 9-11 May 2003

scentsory design® – The OSMO Dimension

Dr Jenny Tillotson - Sensory Designer
Dr George Dodd - Smell Scientist and Perfumer

Our work uses contemporary aroma technology to explore the world of Osmo-Art (Osmo from the Greek, relating to smell). This we do in myriad forms, including smart osmo-garments and the ‘wellness’ experience; dynamic electronic delivery of abstract aroma experiences; olfactory interpretations of paintings; and live perfume performances.

Of William Blake’s ‘five windows of the soul’, smell receives little attention in our culture. Vision is stimulated with painting and art lessons; our hearing is trained in music lessons; but – was your sense of smell trained?

Enhancing smell, taste and the trigeminal senses, the so-called chemical senses, means enriching the direct interaction between nanoparticles called molecules and the brain. As the stimulus is not a vibration like sound and vision, when we sniff an object our brain apprehends ‘smellecules’ ™ which are the molecules floating from the object into the air.

We discover the most direct way our brain has of interacting, of sharing information with the external world – the sense of smell being intimately plumbed into our memory and emotional centres, we become aware of our personal smell sensory universe.

The expanded smell experience is triggered by sensitive clothing and dynamic electronic emitters acting as artificial gland and scent detectors. The trained and enhanced sense of smell gives a new sense of wellbeing, intimate feeling of our personal scent atmosphere.

By linking direct emotions and abstract smells and by playing with profound memory evocation and hedonic feelings, we discover a wellness sensory experience.

We open a new scent dimension – the Osmo Art Dimension.

Credits

• ScentOrgan dress designed by Adeline André
• Sponsored by AHRB
• Scent Controller supplied by Aerome AG
• Scent Communication Group
• Shoes by Steve McIntyre
• Fragrances by George Dodd
  

Click here to see a powerpoint presentation of the scentOrgan Dress.

Pictures of the event:
http://www.robertcharlton.dial.pipex.com/10faces/face05.htm
http://www.robertcharlton.dial.pipex.com/user_mode/index.htm

Webcast:
http://www.tate.org.uk/audiovideo/user_mode/usermode13.ram

scentOrgan 'Clothes That Make Scents' featured at 'Wear Me'
exhibition IEE Eurowearable 03 4-5th September 2003:
www.eurowearable.org